News and insight

HESA Data analyst John Rowe discusses how the quality of contact details improves the chances of contact with respondents and leads to a better quality of insights.

Two reports on the use of ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) in Graduate Outcomes review the quality assurance process for 2018/19 and verify the application of the updated coding system using 2017/18 data.

The latest version of the ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) will be used to provide updated statistics for the 2017/18 Graduate Outcomes survey on 20 May 2021. 

Thank you to those organisations that expressed an interest in participating in the Alpha phase. 
We reviewed applications and now have a list of confirmed participants. Our selection criteria included a spread across nations, provision, student record software and in-house software.

Graduate Outcomes statistics for 2018/19 graduates will be released in July 2021. HESA will investigate whether the data needs to be weighted, and the effects of Covid restrictions on the four survey cohorts.

The Office for Statistics Regulation assessed HESA’s Higher Education Graduate Outcomes Data against the Code of Practice for Statistics and found that it demonstrates the trustworthiness, quality and value of Graduate Outcomes statistics.

The Data Futures Programme Board, made up of HESA, Jisc, Statutory Customer and provider representatives, has agreed that the Data Futures transition year of 2022/23 will be an annual collection, taking place during the summer of 2023. 

HESA's Data and Innovation team use Census statistics to assess the quality of HESA's parental education and socio-economic classification data.

Detailed release of staff data reveals that education departments have the highest proportions of female academics, with engineering and technology having the lowest proportion.

6.7% of young UK full-time first degree entrants in 2018/19 did not continue past their first year. 11.1% were projected to leave higher education without a qualification.